As a young family with not much money to spare, we budget as much as we possibly can. Of course, we don’t deny ourselves the odd treat but when you have a toddler, owe some money to family and friends and are trying to save for all manner of things (wedding, house, another child), it really is up to us to stretch our money as far as it will go.
Since my redundancy, I have slowly been setting up as a freelance writer and Steve has just been offered (and taken) a promotion at work. Whilst this means there will be more income, this doesn’t mean we won’t stick to our budget. With Jack’s birthday and Christmas coming up, we are allowing our budget to increase slightly to cover these costs but it doesn’t mean we won’t be seeking out great deals.
The main money worry for me at Christmas isn’t the presents, if I’m perfectly honest. Everyone I generally buy for would be happy with something small, it’s my choice to buy them something bigger. However, the one thing that I will never scrimp on is Christmas Dinner. Whilst I don’t go to the extremes as some and spend an absolute fortune on it and whilst I do try and get as much for my money as possible, Christmas Dinner has to be perfect – especially as we may be cooking for both sets of parents this year as well!
I usually stick to the supermarkets when it comes to my meat as they have good prices. However, I can’t always guarantee good quality and I have recently been looking at a variety of online butchers for our Christmas meat this year. We normally have turkey but a few members of the family aren’t big fans so we are deciding between chicken and duck – the prices between which differ amazingly!
By far the best I have found so far for quality and price has to be Country Valley Foods. The prices between meats doesn’t vary by too much and they are all very affordable. They offer a great range of products and I’ve even spotted a possible Christmas present for someone amongst them all! I’m even tempted to have a Hog Roast at my wedding as they offer Hog Roast Hire – something both sides of the family will be chuffed about.
I’m definitely going to be visiting the site again in the run up to the holidays – they may have just sorted Christmas for me!
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I can't imagine not having turkey at Christmas – we have a family tradition at my Mum's of naming the turkey… Don't ask!
A hog roast at your wedding sounds incredible, though!
Jess xo
Haha I know, right?x
Interesting! I've been trying to bring up budget to my husband for Christmas but we haven't gotten around to it yet. We always have filet on Christmas Eve! For as long as I can remember, thats what we've always had! I look forward to it every year, too, because its soooooo good! We do turkey on Christmas Day, but thats a different part of the family and a whole different thing.
So difficult to bring it up!
Nice to hear all is going well for you x
Thanks Justine!x
I guess we are lucky when it comes to xmas food as we are always either at my mum's or mother in laws but once we have bigger place we will able to cook for them which would be nice.
That will be lovely 🙂